Nearly 1,000 teenagers receive financial health training through BBVA Spain’s volunteer program
With the aim of supporting and helping members of society to manage their personal finances, BBVA organized nearly 50 workshops and training sessions in Spain for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15. Over the past six months, 69 bank employees volunteered for the series of initiatives, which seeks to provide young people across the country with basic tools to learn to manage their personal finances and improve their financial decisions. BBVA has helped nearly 1,000 people with the programs launched this year.
Nearly 200 volunteers participated in the program ‘Tus finanzas, tu futuro’ (Your finances, your future), which was developed by the Junior Achievement Foundation and the Spanish Banking Association (AEB); and in the initiative ‘Te pongo un reto’ (I’ll give you a challenge), which was jointly organized by BBVA and the Management and Social Participation Foundation (Fundación Gestión y Participación Social).
69 BBVA volunteers participated in ‘Tus finanzas, tu futuro’, helping 923 students learn to make a budget, understand savings and plan their personal finances to handle unexpected expenses.
For three consecutive weeks, the volunteers taught sessions on financial education, both online and in-person at the educational center assigned by the Junior Achievement Foundation. To do so, they had the training and materials needed to introduce the 13 to 15 year old students to the world of finance.
The first session of this program covered the importance of saving; the second addressed planning as an effective method to avoid impulsive decisions and to become responsible consumers; and the third focused on the world of digital banking and the most common forms of cyber financial fraud.
Since the first edition of ‘Tus finanzas, tu futuro’ was first launched in 2015, 550 BBVA volunteers have participated in this financial education initiative. The program is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4 on quality education, and with the inclusive growth component of BBVA’s 2025 Community Commitment.
Additional training on cybersecurity
Furthermore, over 100 people received specialized training in cybersecurity. This year, BBVA also organized the webinar ‘Te pongo un reto’ in conjunction with the Management and Social Participation Foundation. Two webinars lasting one hour each explained the importance of preventing and detecting cyber bullying. This program also provided advice on how to use technology responsibly.
The webinar ‘Cómo prevenir y actuar ante las ciberadicciones en la familia’ (How to prevent and respond to cyber addiction in the family), 94 BBVA volunteers covered various situations regarding how teenagers interact with the internet. They offered recommendations on how to identify risky situations online, how to prevent them, and how to provide effective educational support at home.
In the workshop’s second online talk ‘Cómo reconocer y prevenir el ciberacoso en la familia’ (How to recognize and prevent cyber bullying in the family), 60 BBVA volunteers explained the concept within the current context. They also identified the various actors involved in these situations, and described the essential elements needed to detect cyber bullying, and key ways to prevent and respond to it.
Other BBVA initiatives to promote knowledge and learning
The online world and everything it encompasses is revolutionizing the way we do and understand things. Therefore, gaining knowledge of these information technologies and programming starting in childhood has become increasingly important. In this regard, for the second time, BBVA and Code.org also launched a workshop designed to teach coding to young people between the ages of six and 14. They were given the challenge of developing a new feature for BBVA’s app.